Good Hustlers: Marion Mays || Thalia Stanley Group

Marion Mays, founder of wealth creation business Thalia Stanley Group is nothing short of a spiritual wealth warrior. She has spent over 20 years in the Financial Services Sector working across multiple areas of expertise from lending, to debt and asset recovery, as well as directly in property investment. She holds qualifications in business/marketing, professional coaching, financial planning and real estate. She has been an avid property investor since 1996 starting her investment journey with a commercial property in Collins Street Melbourne and extending that to a residential property portfolio in both Metropolitan and regional Victoria. Marion is so much more than words can describe. She can magically make additional hours happen in the day to run her business, fight for the rights of women in domestic violence situations, help women and men get financially literate and be an incredible mum to her beautiful boy Somerset.

Marion would be the first person to not hold herself up as the kind of unattainable superwomen that other women are intimidated by, and one of her charms is that she is so real and so open about how hard the journey is as a single mum trying to make a difference in the world in the finance sector. Especially as that world is often one which at the zenith of its masculine power can exclude and marginalize women from all walks of life.

Only recently Marion tagged me in a Linkedin post she had done about the escalation of homelessness for women, especially women aged 50 and upwards, linked to her CEO sleepout fundraising for all homeless people. This is a terrible situation and one that many of us are concerned about for a very vulnerable group of women. A man, who I will resist shaming here, who is an Australian financial planner came back with a comment that basically said that as women pay less tax than men, they don’t have the right to support from the government or anywhere else. Their casualization was due to laziness and women should work harder and pay more tax. I know right – never read the comments, but this is the type of unbelievable attitude that is out there. Sure, we all get that women pay less tax as they are marginalized from work due to child rearing and casualization (that dude clearly didn’t want to read the memo on that) but the energy to even respond to the anger and hate in his post toward women is exhausting.

Lasting, meaningful change in life and in business doesn’t come easy. It is a constant work in progress, and sometimes that work feels like it will crush you. Other times, when in Marion’s world you see a woman who steps into her own power and financial freedom, or your son donates all his pocket money for a year to your sleepout cause, you know you are living a life that can make a profound impact.

Empowering Men and Women with the knowledge they need to cultivate Financial independence and security.

I don’t believe any man or woman should outsource their power to a “financial guru” or “expert"

2. How do you integrate service to others in your business model?

Our core business business model is centred around being in service, this is our starting place – with a strong ethos /belief that when we focus on being in service to others – the rest will honestly take care of itself business wise. We offer free consultations each year to survivors of Domestic Violence or those experiencing it. We donate a percentage of proceeds to a number of causes ongoing in the Domestic Violence and homelessness space. We offer customised free Financial workshops for disadvantaged or community groups upon request.

3. What were some of the highlights and lowlights of your journey to where you are now?

The highlights have been having industry and media recognise and value my work, becoming a contributing author to a book published in the U.K last year and being nominated for industry awards. Its not the kudos or public recognition rather the validation that my efforts are seen as a valuable contribution to others. The low lights have been the extremely long hours in research and development and many failed versions of what we now do, there were days where I was so tired operating on a few hours sleep and there was no commercial reward for version 17 of the work- at those times the critics voices in my head seemed louder than ever.

4. Do you have a spiritual practice?

I use a lot of ritual and essential oils for spiritual practice, this can range from a specially blended aromatherapy bath to the diffusing of frankensence whilst I meditate. I practice “active gratitude” where I write down on a heart each day what I am grateful for and put it into a jar that I open at New years eve. I abstain from food to heighten my spiritual practice and prayer.

5. Advice for others who want to start their own good hustle?

Do Values elicitation work, get really clear on your 3-5 highest values and then practice in the real world living a values based life. From this space get crystal clear on your Why- what is your deep calling and is it congruent with your values and talent (being out of alignment with these two things leads to often a lot of heart break and financial challenge- swimming against the tide). Get coaching and mentoring, be open to robust challenging of your ideas, model yourself off the very best in the industry, turn off the volume from the arm chair critics, surround yourself with people playing life at the same level (the good hustle gets really lonely sometimes)